This is how we can avoid another COVID-19 lockdown, according to Houston Methodist CEO
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- With Texas surpassing 5,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day for the first time, and hospital admissions in Houston tripling since Memorial Day, leaders at city hospitals are worried.
"No, we're not at a tipping point," said Dr. Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist Hospital. "We have seen hospitalizations triple across the board, across all hospitals, our hospital system has seen that as well. We are able to care for the patients who are coming to us but, of course, we're concerned with the trend lines we're seeing."
Boom appeared on "Good Morning America" Wednesday, talking to anchor George Stephanopoulos about the recent COVID-19 surge.
One factor he said could be behind the rise is simply people letting their guard down around Memorial Day weekend.
"I think what's happened and watching it around our community, people have completely let their guard down. Honestly, as a health care professional and physician myself, it's frustrating because we've all been saying for a long, long time we know how to conquer this virus. It is through all of those best practices of social distancing and all of the other things we talk about, wearing a mask, et cetera, and somewhere around Memorial Day people just sort of sighed a breath of relief and said, 'Hey, I'm going to go like it's summer, and we're paying the price for that now. So the flip side of that is we have to go back to the best practices that we have," Boom said.
On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott acknowledged COVID-19 is "spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas," however he said closing the state again "will always be the last option."
Instead, the governor continued to urge Texans to stay home, and not leave unless it's necessary.
But Boom is optimistic we could avoid another lockdown if everyone does their part.
"I think we can avoid lockdown if people do social distancing," Boom said. "(It's) important that the citizens of Houston really all rally together to do all of the right things, so we can contain the spread of this virus and the increases we're seeing."
Watch the video above to hear encouraging news from Boom about cases and hospital stays.
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